Workshop 32 mini-test

1. What does D♭/E♭ literally tell the pianist to do?

2. Why is it not simply an inversion of D♭ major?

3. What intervals does D♭-F-A♭ form relative to E♭ bass?

4. What familiar harmonic family does this resemble?

5. What happens if the major 3rd G is introduced over E♭ bass?

6. What is the difference between fixed bass + moving upper structures and fixed upper structure + moving bass?

7. Why can two different chord symbols sometimes describe approximately the same sonority?

8. Why is top-down voicing especially useful with slash chords?

9. What should you analyze before worrying about the exact chord name?

10. What is the deepest lesson of Workshop 32?

Answers

1. Play a D♭-major upper structure while E♭ is the bass.
2. E♭ is not a member of the D♭-major triad, so the bass is an independent note rather than an inversion note.
3. ♭7, 9, and 11.
4. An E♭9sus / suspended-dominant-type sonority.
5. G becomes the major 3rd of E♭ and gives the sonority much stronger major/dominant functional identity.
6. Fixed bass creates pedal-based changing color; fixed upper harmony with moving bass creates harmonic reinterpretation through the bass line.
7. One symbol may emphasize the upper structure while another emphasizes the bass/root/function—for example, D♭/E♭ versus an E♭sus interpretation.
8. Because the melody may already supply an extension or chord member, allowing you to add only the minimum inner notes necessary.
9. Melody, bass movement, common tones, and voice-leading.
10. Complex-looking harmony often becomes simple when you stop treating the chord as one indivisible object and hear independent layers: bass below, familiar shape above, and melody on top.

The central lesson of Workshop 32 is:

Advanced harmony is often not about finding stranger chords. It is about allowing the bass, inner voices, and melody to have separate lives—and hearing the chord as the moment where those lives happen to meet.